January 12, 2011

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 99

Greetings from Snowpocalypse II. The white fluff here in Pittsburgh is more picturesque than paralyzing, but it still provides a great excuse to stay indoors and trawl online for free music. Given that all but one of the 50 U.S. states currently has snow on the ground, that means there's a lot of Stateside shut-ins looking for something to do. For your diversionary pleasure...

Bruce Jackson—former president of the American Folklore Society and author of Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues—recorded "smooth" country bluesman Eugene Rhodes at the Indiana State Penitentiary in '62. • • • Valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer teamed up with guitarists Jim Hall and Jimmy Raney to form an oddball front line on The Street Swingers, a unexpectedly off-beat session from '57. • • • A national treasure in the U.K., the late folksinger Fred Jordan didn't make his first LP until the age of 44. The 1972 long-player referenced here was recorded eight years after that. • • • The combo flipping the most lids during Chicano jive craze in 1940s L.A. were Don Tosti's Pachuco Boogie Boys. (This Arhoolie collection will put your lid in the next county.) Tosti's classically trained ivories-pounder, Eddie Cano, later changed coasts and became an in-demand player in the Afro-Cuban jazz craze in 1950s NYC. • • • Twelve separate volumes of fuzz, prog and rock from East Germany (and nearby Poland, Hungary, etc.) were released under the Hallo title by the GDR's state record label Amiga. This collection of Stasi stompers comprises Volume 5.

Some Like It Smooth"If there is a more obscure country blues artist than this fellow, then he is probably locked up somewhere, as well, one hastens to add, because that was the situation when blues scholar Bruce Jackson first discovered Eugene Rhodes. He was doing a ten- to 25-year stretch at the Indiana State Prison, which was where a remarkable album was recorded of 15 songs and a little talking that was eventually released on a label even more obscure than the bluesman, if such a thing is possible." (Eugene Chadbourne, in AllMusic.com)

Not the Usual Arrangements"The interplay between the two guitars is endlessly intriguing, and it speaks volumes that when Brookmeyer plays piano nobody ever gets in anybody's way-generally it's hard enough for one guitarist and a pianist not to step on each other's toes. Hall's "Arrowhead" is a minor masterpiece that foreshadowed the classic work he and Brookmeyer would soon do with Jimmy Giuffre." (Duck Baker, JazzTimes)

Workman Life Effort"In the autumn of 1959, Fred attracted the attention of participants in the folk song revival when he appeared at the English Folk Dance and Song society’s festival wearing his everyday clothes – heavy boots, leggings and weather-defying hat. His singing drew immediate acclaim. Since then he has appeared with increasing regularity at concerts and clubs, with other country singers and also with revival performances. He enjoys concert and club work, where he sings with the straightforward ‘professionalism’ and unselfconsciousness common to most country singers. As a folk singer he may be classed with the best – and that best includes Harry Cox, George Maynard and Phil Tanner. Though he is still a young man he has the essential style of this older generation. His musical sense is very highly developed; his ability to make small rhythmical changes to suit the words of songs is marked and his use of melodic ornament is subtle and skillful. the quality of his voice may seem strange at first hearing, but it is not unique, and there is nothing here of an old man’s quaver, for Fred Jordan is in his prime." (Liners forSongs of a Shropshire Farm Worker)

Reish of Mucho Piano! from '62"Los Angeles pianist Eddie Cano was one of the most exciting Latin jazz musicians of the 1940s and 1950s. A Mexican American born in 1927, he began as a bassist, taking lessons from his grandfather who had worked with the Mexico City Symphony. Cano was alto trained in classical piano, and he expanded his talents further when he discovered jazz. After his discharge from the army, he made his professional debut with the Pachuco Boogie Boys in 1947. It was then that his rhythmic style came to the attention of singer and bandleader Miguelito Valdés, who had brought Chano Pozo from Havana to New York in 1946. Valdés brought Cano to New York in 1947. For two years Cano played for Valdés and sat in with Tito Puente, Machito, and Noro Morales." (Raúl A. Fernández, from Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination)